POWER TEAM CONTINUES FIGHT WITH BELL
By Adnews Staff
Power Team Enterprises of Mississauga, Ont. is not letting up on Bell Canada. The company has sent complaints to MPs, the Competition Bureau and Industry Minister John Manley to fight what the company calls Bell's anticompetitive practices. Bell launched a promotion a few months ago, offering its Bell Advantage customers a five-page Web site design for $150. Power Team responded in June, offering a five-page Web site design to Bell Advantage customers for $145. If a customer does not subscribe to the Bell Advantage long distance plan, the price is $225. Power Team also complained to Brampton MP Colleen Beaumier, who forwarded a request to investigate the promotion to the Competition Bureau. MPPs John Snobellen and Tony Clement said it was a federal matter. Power Team did get a response, of sorts, from the Competition Bureau. After an investigation, Bell agreed to end its promotion on Aug. 31, but Power Team owner Jim Larkin says that was the date the promotion was scheduled to end anyway. "They are letting Bell finish the promotion. That's like asking the bank robber not to do it again, but go ahead and finish robbing this bank," Larkin says in a release. Industry Minister Jon Manley told Power Team that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission allows local phone companies to bundle local telephone service with other services including Internet access, and that the Advantage Internet service is not offered by Bell Canada, but by Bell Sygma, an affiliated but separate company from Bell.